MISSTEPS TO THE MIRACULOUS

MISSTEPS TO THE MIRACULOUS
Monday, August 24, 2026 by Linda Wood Rondeau

He has made everything beautiful in its time.

(Ecclesiastes 3:11a NIV)

Ever start to bake a pie and realize you’re out of eggs?

There are days when the mistakes glop together like a half-blended pastry shell. And there’s no way to get to the store in time to start over.

When my pot roast comes out looking more like beef jerky, I am reminded of many who have summoned a life of influence out of the messes in their lives. And that gives me hope.

Allison Bottke, creator of the God Allows U-Turns series, author of the novels A Stitch in Time and One Little Secret, as well as non-fiction books such as S.A.N.I.T.Y. and Setting Boundaries with Your Adult Children, shares her story at writers' conferences. The founder of several ministries, including Baby Boomer Women Rock, Allison is a high-profile speaker and author.

Amidst all her credentials, she recalls when life seemed hopeless.

Coming from a dysfunctional home, Allison ran away to get married at the age of fifteen. That relationship proved to be abusive. She left a year later but was pregnant. Life was hard. To fill the void in her life, she turned to every popular ism of the day. She states she even taught her son to believe there was no God. Allison says, “I was so open-minded that my brain slipped out.”

At the age of thirty-five, she realized her only salvation rested in the hope of Jesus Christ. With that spiritual awakening and centered belief, she began to find passion and purpose. She tells writers that once you’ve given your life over to God’s direction, every test becomes a testimony and every mess a message.

Consider the example of Saul of Tarsus, a highly educated Jew and a Roman Citizen. Saul was the opposite of being open-minded. He feared any idea apart from his interpretation of the law, a law he knew better than most. A Pharisee and dedicated to the scriptures, Saul became committed to the eradication of this Jesus nonsense and to do away with these followers of “The Way.”

His persecution of the church caused havoc. He stood while Stephen was stoned to death. Saul’s mind was so closed that no reasonable argument could dissuade him from his self-conceived purpose.

That would change when Saul encountered the Living God. Saul of Tarsus became Paul the Apostle. Under his ministry, the church spread across the known world. And we are indebted to this servant for large portions of the Holy Bible. He was no longer a persecutor but a preserver of the Lord’s message.

When I am reminded of these two examples, people whose lives turned 180 degrees, I stop wallowing in the cesspool of my past. For God will turn the worst beginnings into the most wonderful of endings.

PRAYER

Lord,

I cannot undo yesterday. Help me not to wallow in the mistakes of my past. Rather, let me surrender them to you, trusting in the miracle you can make from my stumbles. Amen.

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